Britain Names Its First Combat Drone: Brontanax
The reveal came without a flypast, without a scream of afterburner. On the second day of the Farnborough International Airshow, BAE Systems pulled a cover from a matt-grey, tailless aircraft roughly the size of a Hawk trainer and gave Britain its first sovereign...
Did China Crash a US Spy Plane on Purpose?
On the morning of 1 April 2001, a lumbering American spy plane and a hot-rod Chinese fighter touched wingtips over the South China Sea. One aircraft limped away with its nose torn off and 24 terrified people aboard. The other broke in half and fell into the sea,...
The Corner of the Sky That Kills Both Ways
There is a place in the sky where flying too slow will kill you and flying too fast will kill you — and the gap between the two can be narrower than the length of a bus. Pilots call it the coffin corner, and it is one of the strangest, most unforgiving pieces of...
Farnborough’s $28 Billion Opening Act
Every couple of years, the aviation industry decamps to a former airfield in Hampshire and spends a week trying to out-announce itself. Farnborough 2026 is no exception — and by the close of the second day, the scoreboard had already ticked past a number that...
Six Flags, One Submarine Hunter
Hunting a submarine is a team sport. This year, at the world’s largest naval exercise, the team stopped stopping at national borders — and started sharing the same aircraft.For the first time at RIMPAC, the U.S. Navy is flying mixed multinational crews...
Golden Eagles Cross the Arafura Sea
The message came from Air Operations Command in Jakarta, and for the ninety-five men and women of Skadron Udara 15 it meant something none of them had done before: pack up five jets, cross the Arafura Sea, and go fly with the world.For the first time, the Indonesian...
Manila’s Mach-1.5 Guard Dog Gets Sharper Teeth
The Philippines is doubling down on the little jet that guards its skies — and this time it is buying the version that finally bites back at range.The Philippine Air Force has confirmed that its next 12 FA-50 fighters remain on schedule, with the first aircraft...
Ten Nights of Fire Over Iran
Ten nights in, the pattern has become grimly familiar. Shortly after 9:00 p.m. Eastern on 20 July, U.S. Central Command announced it had finished another round of strikes on Iran — the tenth consecutive night — hitting military command centres, missile and...
Indonesia Buys a Trainer That Shoots Back
Jakarta went shopping for a frontline fighter and came home, instead, with a very clever trainer that shoots back.At Farnborough on 21 July, Leonardo and its Indonesian partner PT ESystem Solutions signed a contract with Indonesia’s Ministry of Defence for 12...
Europe Quietly Joins the Ghost Bat
Australia built the Ghost Bat. Europe, it turns out, has been quietly helping all along — and at Farnborough, Boeing finally said so out loud.On 21 July, MQ-28 Program Global Director Glen Ferguson confirmed that Italy’s Leonardo has become an official...
Recent Comments